Representative Peter Meijer, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach former president Donald Trump last year, lost his primary in Michigan’s 3rd District to challenger John Gibbs, whom Mr Trump supported.
Mr Meijer was first elected in 2020 to replace Representative Justin Amash, a Republican-turned-independent who voted to impeach Mr Trump in the former president’s first trial in 2019.
Mr Gibbs won with 51.8 per cent to Mr Meijer’s 48.2 per cent, with more than half of the vote reported.
The grandson of the founder of a popular supermarket chain in the midwest, Mr Meijer is one of the wealthiest members of Congress. He also regularly bucked party orthodoxy, co-sponsoring legislation to end the federal death penalty.
A US Army veteran, Mr Meijer and Democratic Representative Seth Moulton also made headlines when they traveled to Afghanistan last year after the Taliban took over the country.
But Mr Trump endorsed his opponent in November of last year.
“Unlike Peter Meijer, he will not turn his back on Michigan,” Mr Trump said.
During a debate between the two candidates in June, Mr Meijer defended his vote to impeach Mr Trump.
“I was there on Jan. 6. I saw police officers beaten, bruised, the vice president having to flee with his wife and daughter from a mob that was chanting hang Mike Pence,” he said at the time, according to MLive.
But during that same forum, Mr Gibbs decried what he called irregularities and parroted Mr Trump’s lies about voter fraud swaying the 2020 presidential election results.
“I think when you look at the results of the 2020 election, there are anomalies in there, to put it very lightly, that are simply mathematically impossible,” he said.
Redistricting made the district far far more friendly to Democrats and sensing a chance to flip a seat, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ran ads highlight Mr Gibbs’s extremism in hopes of elevating him to the general election, thinking he could lose more easily.
DCCC Chairman Sean Patrick Maloney defended the move in an interview with MSNBC. “If you're talking about trying to pick your opponent, you might see us do that, sure. And I think sometimes it does make sense.”
But many Democrats, ranging from moderates like Representative Abigail Spanberger to progressives like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, criticised the strategy.
“I think that in the coalition of those who support democracy, there are only a few Republicans who have really put their, you know, frankly, their careers on the line,” Ms Spanberger told The Independent last week.
Mr Meijer is only the most recent Republican who voted to impeach Mr Trump to exit Congress. Representative Tom Rice lost his primary in South Carolina’s 7th district to a Trump-backed incumbent in June. Others, such as Representatives Fred Upton in Michigan, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, John Katko of Michigan and Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio chose to retire.
Representative David Valadao of California, who also voted to impeach Mr Trump, survived his primary in June.
